by Winston Biscuit »
17 Feb 2023 12:40
6ft Kerplunk Does remind me of a pet hate. South American players getting away with having a nickname on the back of their shirts rather than their proper surname.
years ago I read an article on that which basically said nicknames in general are much more common in life in South America, this is in part because in Latin America there are less surnames spread around. It said that its not just in football that this happens, its not uncommon at all that in everyday life someone gets a nickname in childhood and they are referred to it forever. So in team sport its very common that you get some people with the same surname so using first names or nicknames is not unusual.
In Brazil people often have where they are from added to their name to differentiate themselves from someone with the same name.
I have always liked that Ronaldinho's name is Ronaldo, but he was happy to be called Ronaldinho (which means little Ronaldo) which worked well in the Brazilian national team as there was already a Ronaldo. That Ronaldo was himself known for a short while as Ronaldinho as there was already another older Ronaldo in the team and so that older Ronaldo then became known as Ronaldao (old/big Ronaldo). Then to differentiate him further Ronaldinho gets referred to as Ronaldinho Gaucho by Brazilian commentators (Gaucho is a reference to where he is from)
